1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for alerting an operator of a vehicle to only a highest priority fault condition. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system for alerting an operator to only the highest priority vehicle fault condition by utilizing a prioritization method that is based upon operator actions. This system allows the operator of the vehicle to manage all of the active vehicle fault conditions by performing a single operator action instruction.
2. Related Art
Conventional fault condition detection systems that are utilized to detect the existence of a potentially hazardous condition for a vehicle utilize one or more sensors for collecting data representing the operating conditions of the vehicle. After the sensors collect such data, a controller, such as a central processing unit, compares the collected data to predetermined threshold values and/or ranges in order to determine whether the vehicle is operating in a hazardous condition or may be soon operating in a hazardous condition.
If the controller determines, based on the comparison between the detected operating conditions and the predetermined threshold values and/or ranges of the operating conditions, that the vehicle is either operating in a hazardous condition or may be soon operating a hazardous condition, the controller outputs a warning to the operator of the vehicle which alerts the operator to a vehicle fault condition, and informs the operator of the actions which must be performed in order to manage the detected fault condition.
Thus, in the conventional system, in a situation in which there is only one fault condition detected for the vehicle, the controller outputs a warning to the operator which alerts the operator to the detected fault condition and informs the operator of the actions that must be performed in order to manage the fault. As such, in a situation in which there is only one detected vehicle fault condition, the conventional system can easily convey to the operator of the vehicle the necessary actions that need to be performed in order to manage the detected fault.
In the conventional system, however, a problem arises when multiple fault conditions of the vehicle are detected. In such a situation, the controller outputs a separate set of operator actions for each detected vehicle fault condition. Accordingly, if first and second fault conditions are detected, the controller outputs to the operator a first set of operator actions which inform the operator of the actions that must be performed in order to manage the first detected fault condition, as well as a second set of operator actions which inform the operator of the actions that must be performed in order to manage the second detected fault condition.
Thus, in the example above, in which first and second vehicle fault conditions are detected, it is possible that the operator actions associated with the first detected fault condition may conflict with the operator actions associated with the second detected fault condition. For example, a high hydraulic oil temperature fault has an associated operator action of “STOP, PARK, RUN ENGINE”, whereas a high coolant temperature fault has an associated operator action of “STOP, PARK, SHUTDOWN ENGINE”. In this case, performing the actions associated with the high hydraulic oil temperature fault and not shutting down the engine would result in severe damage to the engine.
Accordingly, in such a situation, by the operator carrying out the actions necessary to manage the first detected fault condition, the operator may actually be placing the vehicle in a more hazardous condition than if the operator had not performed such actions.
Further, in the conventional system, when multiple fault conditions are detected for a vehicle, the operator actions which must be performed in order to manage the faults are output to the operator of the vehicle based on the time of detection. However, in a situation in which a first one of the detected fault conditions is a non-critical fault condition, and a second one of the detected fault conditions is a critical fault condition, because the required operator actions necessary to manage the non-critical fault condition are output to the operator before the operator actions necessary to manage the critical fault condition, a dangerous situation can arise.
In particular, because the operator will likely perform the actions necessary to manage the non-critical fault condition prior to performing the steps necessary to manage the critical fault condition, such a delay in addressing the critical fault condition could place the vehicle, as well as the operator, in an extremely hazardous situation.
In view of the foregoing problems, what is needed is an operator alerting system which utilizes a vehicle fault prioritization scheme that prioritizes each of a plurality of vehicle fault conditions based on the operator actions which must be performed in order to manage the corresponding fault conditions, wherein the prioritization of the fault conditions enables the operator alerting system to output to the operator of the vehicle a single operator action instruction that when performed will manage all of the vehicle fault conditions.